Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929)

Directed by

Roy Del Ruth

Genre

musical film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 41m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.7 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This is a musical comedy from 1929 about showgirls and their romantic pursuits. It uses early color film and sound to showcase songs and performances.

livelyromanticupbeatlightheartedcolorfulmusicalnostalgicfeel-good

What happens

Gold Diggers of Broadway (also known as The Gold Diggers of Broadway) is a 1929 American sound (All-Talking) pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Winnie Lightner and Nick Lucas. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film is the second all-talking, all-Technicolor feature-length film (after On with the Show!, also released that year by Warner Bros). Gold Diggers of Broadway became a box office sensation, making Winnie Lightner a worldwide star and boosting guitarist crooner Nick Lucas to further fame as he sang two songs that became 20th-century standards: "Tip-Toe Thru' the Tulips with Me" and "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine". Based on the 1919 play The Gold Diggers—which was also turned into a silent film of the same name in 1923—Gold Diggers of Broadway used showgirls, Technicolor, and sound as its main selling points. It was released in New York City on August 29, 1929, and was played at the Winter Garden Theatre. It was chosen as one of the ten best films of 1929 by The Film Daily. As with many early Technicolor films, no complete print survives, although the last twenty minutes do, but missing are a bridging sequence and the last minute of the film. Contemporary reviews, the soundtrack and the surviving footage suggest that the film was a fast-moving comedy which was enhanced by Technicolor and a set of lively and popular songs. It encapsulates the spirit of the flapper era, giving a glimpse of a world about to be changed by the Great Depression. Because Gold Diggers of Broadway has been considered a partially lost film since the 1970s, the loose remake, Gold Diggers of 1933, is the most frequently seen version of the story. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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